Liberty vs. Sun odds, tips and betting trends - 6/1/2025
Liberty vs. Sun odds, tips and betting trends - 6/1/2025
The New York Liberty (6-0) welcome in the Connecticut Sun (1-5) after winning three home games in a row. It tips at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
New York defeated Washington 85-63 on the road in its last game. Its top performers were Sabrina Ionescu (28 PTS, 5 AST, 2 STL, 56.3 FG%, 4-11 from 3PT) and Jonquel Jones (14 PTS, 18 REB, 2 STL, 2 BLK, 35.7 FG%). In its most recent game, Connecticut beat Indiana, 85-83, on the road. Its top performers were Marina Mabrey (26 PTS, 5 AST, 2 STL, 58.8 FG%, 4-9 from 3PT) and Tina Charles (18 PTS, 43.8 FG%).
Here's everything you need to get ready for Sunday's WNBA action.
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New York Liberty vs. Connecticut Sun odds and betting lines
WNBA odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Saturday at 6:05 p.m. ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub.
Spread: Liberty (-18.5)
Liberty (-18.5) Over/under: 161.5
161.5 Favorite: Liberty (-3030, bet $3030 to win $100)
Liberty (-3030, bet $3030 to win $100) Underdog: Sun (+1250, bet $100 to win $1250)
Liberty moneyline insights
The Liberty have won all six of the games they have been favored on the moneyline this season.
New York has not played a game this season with moneyline odds of -3030 or shorter.
The Liberty have an implied moneyline win probability of 96.8% in this contest.
In four of six games this season, New York and its opponents have combined to total more than 161.5 points.
The average total in Liberty outings this year is 166.3, 4.8 more points than this game's over/under.
Sun moneyline insights
The Sun have won one of the six games they've played as underdogs this season.
Connecticut has not entered a game this season as a bigger underdog on the moneyline than the +1250 odds on it winning this game.
The implied probability of a win by the Sun based on the moneyline is 7.4%.
The Sun have combined with their opponents to score more than 161.5 points in three of six games this season.
Connecticut has had an average of 160.8 points scored in its games so far this season, 0.7 points fewer than this game's over/under.
Liberty vs. Sun: Live streaming info & game time
Game day: Sunday, June 1, 2025
Sunday, June 1, 2025 Game time: 3 p.m. ET
3 p.m. ET Stadium: Barclays Center
Barclays Center TV channel: NBCS-BOS, WWOR, and Liberty Live
NBCS-BOS, WWOR, and Liberty Live Live stream: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
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Advertisement 'It would be very unfair for someone to think that I didn't sacrifice to come into the position I'm in,' Adams said. 'Whether it was the amount of work I did starting through my playing career, going above and beyond, doing extra, the education I got, the different roles I had. Is it a different path? Yeah. Thirty-two GMs have different paths. Some go right from being agents to GMs. So if someone is saying I didn't sacrifice because I wasn't in Moose Jaw or something, I doubt they know my exact life.' Adams spent 11 years in the NHL, mostly as a fourth-line role player. He played for six NHL teams and won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. His career high was 15 goals and he played 82 games in a season once. But he had an active role in the NHLPA and a deep interest in the business of hockey. When his playing career ended in 2008, Adams worked in a development role for O2K Sports, a hockey agency two of his college teammates founded. 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'It's just been helter-skelter for the Sabres ever since he bought the Bills.' By that point, the Pegulas trusted Adams and had been grooming him for a leadership position. During his time at Harborcenter, Adams got more responsibility, getting pulled into meetings about the hotel and restaurant sides of the business. After six years at Harborcenter and the Academy of Hockey, Adams was promoted to Sabres vice president of business administration in September 2019. Kim Pegula said in a news release announcing the hire, 'Kevyn brings unsurpassed experience, perspective and vision to this position. He exemplifies our company values of teamwork, respect, accountability, integrity, trust and success.' Advertisement At the time, Kim Pegula was the team president, but Adams would fill in at certain meetings when Kim, who was also president of the Bills, was unavailable. He was the Sabres' alternate governor and went to owners' meetings. He traveled with the team and met other team presidents for dinners to gain a better understanding of the business side of the NHL. By June 2020, nine months after that promotion, Adams made a leap few in the hockey world saw coming. With COVID grinding the sports world to a halt and the Sabres outside of the playoffs for a ninth straight season, Kim Pegula gave then-general manager Jason Botterill a public vote of confidence in an interview with the Associated Press. Three weeks later, Adams got a call from Terry Pegula, who asked him to get on a plane to Florida. A couple of days later, Botterill was fired and Adams was hired to replace him. There were no other candidates. The sudden change was startling to those in the building and puzzling to those around the league. Adams accepted what was believed to be among the lowest general manager salaries in the NHL at the time, according to a source involved in the Sabres' decision making. Before Adams, Pegula had hired two people with more traditional GM resumes and had gotten neither the results he wanted nor the involvement he craved. 'We felt like we weren't being heard,' Terry Pegula said at the time of Adams' hiring. 'We have a vision, and we want to see our vision succeed.' That vision was more about business than hockey. Adams said the focus was on 'right-sizing' the organization. Pegula wanted to move forward with a leaner scouting staff and used the words 'effective, efficient and economic' to describe the Sabres' new ethos. They said they wanted to scale back operations and build them out over time, a process Adams says is ongoing. Advertisement In his first day on the job, Adams informed more than 20 people they'd been fired. Longtime scouts, high-ranking executives and coaches in Rochester all heard from Adams that day. That left Adams as a first-time general manager charged with rebuilding the hockey operations department. 'I had done everything in my career so that I could put myself in a position to potentially be ready to be general manager, and that's no matter what,' Adams said. 'Everybody at some point is a first-time general manager. I felt as prepared as you could possibly be when the phone call came in. Now here I am.' No two general managers in the NHL have exactly the same experience, but Adams' background stands out among his peers. Of the currently employed NHL GMs, Adams is one of six who never held an assistant general manager or vice president of hockey operations title in the NHL prior to his hiring. Of those six, he's one of two who never scouted or consulted in an NHL hockey operations department. The other is Canadiens GM Kent Hughes, who was a longtime prominent NHL agent and has an experienced president of hockey operations above him. Outside of the afternoons he spent in his cubicle in the Sabres hockey operations department from December 2009 to August 2011, Adams had no prior NHL hockey operations experience. 'I think that's what rubs people the wrong way,' said one former scout. 'He wasn't in Fargo watching a game. He wasn't in Medicine Hat watching a game. He wasn't at the U18s in Slovakia in August missing family vacation. That's the grind. That's what pretty much everybody else did unless your name is Joe Sakic.' Sabres executives vetted at least two candidates for potential senior adviser positions to help Adams. He said they couldn't find the right fit and isn't sure if anyone would have had experience with what the Sabres were about to go through. On Oct. 11, 2020, five months after hiring Adams, Pegula stood inside his new general manager's office. At that point, Adams had no assistant GMs. His director of scouting was Jeremiah Crowe, who had three years of pro scouting experience before getting elevated to that role. The analytics department was Jason Nightengale. This was the first day of NHL free agency. Pegula and Adams discussed the possibility of signing Taylor Hall to a one-year, $8 million contract. Advertisement Hall had won the Hart Trophy two years earlier with a 39-goal, 54-assist season for the New Jersey Devils. The Sabres had failed to qualify for the expanded 24-team playoff during the pandemic, extending their playoff drought to nine seasons. 'We sign this guy,' Pegula said to Adams in a behind-the-scenes video released by the Sabres, 'we're not only trying to make the playoffs. We're trying to win the Cup.' 'Yeah,' Adams said. 'I mean this is … yeah.' Hall signed with the Sabres and scored two goals and 19 points in 37 games before he was sent to the Bruins at the trade deadline. Buffalo finished in last place, and Adams fired coach Ralph Krueger. That conversation with Pegula painted the picture of an owner who wants to be heard, a general manager willing to listen and together, a tandem that hasn't been able to bring playoff hockey back to Buffalo. The Sabres haven't spent to the salary cap ceiling during Adams' time as general manager. In the last five seasons, they've been a combined $60 million under the cap while the league's cap has been mostly flat. The business decisions Adams and Pegula made in 2020 not only led to a calamitous 2020-21 season, but they also had repercussions on the team's future. 'They're on a hamster wheel,' said another former Sabres scout. 'They just keep going around in circles.' Jack Eichel, the team's 23-year-old captain and franchise player, wanted to be traded, in part, because the Sabres wouldn't allow him to have his preferred neck surgery. And it was too late to convince Sam Reinhart to stick around after the team had missed multiple chances to sign him to a long-term contract under previous regimes. After having misguided Stanley Cup hopes the previous fall, Adams embarked on Buffalo's latest rebuild. One source described the situation in 2021 by saying, 'There was no plan.' Advertisement The next four seasons reflected the ups and downs of a general manager learning on the job and building a roster with an emphasis on homegrown players. The team got 76 points in 2021-22 and awarded Adams and then-coach Don Granato contract extensions. After getting 91 points in 2022-23, Adams barely changed the roster, and the team regressed to 84 points. Adams fired Granato before his contract extension kicked in. Adams and Pegula then brought back Ruff, 13 years after he'd been fired, for a second coaching stint with the Sabres. The 64-year-old didn't bring any of his own assistants, and the team still entered the season with the youngest roster in the NHL. During the 13-game winless streak that sank the Sabres' season, Terry Pegula flew to Montreal to meet with the team and express confidence in the group shortly after Adams' 'palm trees' news conference. The next night, the Sabres lost 6-1 to the Canadiens. The team spent most of the season in last place in the Eastern Conference and ended with 79 points. In a behind-the-scenes video of the Sabres' trade deadline process, Ruff noted that the team's culture needed to change. In that video, Pegula is on a conference call multiple times throughout the day, weighing in on decisions. That offered a view into the dynamic between Adams and Pegula, a dynamic that other potential general managers might view as a red flag. 'Any self-respecting GM who takes that job is going to say, 'I have to be able to run this for you,'' said one former NHL executive. 'I know it's your team and I have to talk to you about things, but I have to be able to build a team and make decisions. If I have to run a simple (Henri) Jokiharju for a fourth by you, what are we doing here?' Adams and Ruff recently had their end-of-season review with Terry Pegula and his oldest daughter, Laura. Terry Pegula took over duties as team president after Kim Pegula had a debilitating cardiac arrest in 2022. Since firing Ted Black, the Sabres haven't had a president or COO who has worked for an NHL team prior to the Sabres. Advertisement Sitting in the alumni room in the 200-level of the Sabres' arena during the interview for this story, Adams said it's 'not true' that he's unwilling to stand up to Terry Pegula or have disagreements with him. Adams said he was honest with Pegula about what went wrong and where he's made mistakes. He thinks the team needs to improve in puck management, team defense and special teams. After that meeting, Adams hired former Hurricanes teammate Eric Staal as a special assistant to the general manager and changed strength coaches. The team hired former Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen as a senior adviser and hasn't ruled out more additions to the front office. There is a recognition from Adams and Pegula that more experienced voices are needed in the front office. The coaching staff is still the same, though. And it's still Adams and Pegula at the top of the organizational chart, along with Ruff. Adams and Ruff each have a year left on their contracts. 'There's frustration, starting with me, with where we finished in the standings,' Adams said. 'We didn't make a coaching change and bring in an experienced coach like we did with the expectations to not be a playoff team. We were all upset after the season. For me, preparing for those meetings was to make sure I honestly was able to articulate where we are today, what I think we've done poorly, what I think we've done well and where we go from here. There was great alignment coming out of that meeting.' (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; top photos: Tony Ding / Icon Sportswire, Dave Sandford / NHLI, Kevin Hoffman / Getty Images)
